During our trip to Richmond we visited two very different outdoor areas. Just off I-95 between Petersburg and Richmond we stopped at the Confederate Fort Darling, used during the Civil War to...
Blog posts from Garden
Spain 2022: Valencia gardens
Jardí Botànic - This small university-affiliated garden has a reasonable admission fee of 3€ and surprised us with its number of specimens and blessedly shady interior. Palm trees, massive oaks,...
NC mountains, April 2022: stops on the way there and back
On the way to Waynesville we stopped at the Ciener Botanical Garden in Kernersville. A fairly small garden, it is free to visit and has a nice selection of specimens, especially Japanese maples....
Longwood Gardens
I've long wanted to visit Longwood Gardens, one of the most well-known gardens on the US east coast famous for its water features and formal gardens. Since we would be driving (relatively)...
Building a fire patio
We've used a small copper fire bowl for our backyard fires for years. Normally we'd set it up in the middle of the yard, clearing a small patch of leaves and pine needles. It worked ok, but it could...
NC Fall Foliage
We've had some nice fall color in Durham the last few weeks, with different patches of the yard turning color at different times. dogwood in the front yard backyard view Japanese maple close-up...
Eric’s 40th: Kew Gardens & Richmond
To help celebrate my birthday Leandra treated me to an afternoon at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (better known as Kew Gardens). The District line took us within a few blocks of the entrance, and...
Memory Monday: a year in the garden
In May, just before we left for Bali, I built a wire trellis to support several climbing plants including moonflower, cardinal climber and passionflower. Starting in early June I took a series of...
Nashville and Franklin, Tennessee
Last weekend we took advantage of our Southwest Airlines companion pass to visit our friend Leah in Nashville. Saturday We arrived Saturday morning and were impressed by Nashville's arrivals area--...
Duke Gardens, July 2012
Last weekend we went to Duke Gardens to check out the summer flowers and to exercise my macro lens. The flowers were as impressive as ever, but the insect life was also quite interesting: notice the...
Late June garden
This weekend North Carolina is experiencing the same heat wave as most of the US, so our plants are bit thirstier than normal. Before this we've seen great weather so our flowers have been quite...
Early June garden
We've had a stretch of excellent weather in NC with cool evenings and periodic rains that have given our garden a boost of growth. In particular, our lavender has been blooming like mad and you can...
Missouri Botanical Gardens
Upon booking our trip to St. Louis I immediately knew one place we couldn't miss- the Missouri Botanical Gardens, or Mobot. Famous for their plant taxonomy I've known and used datasets from them for...
not my favorite way to spend a Sunday afternoon
This past weekend, Eric put me to work helping him weed and do general clean-up duty around the yard. He only has a small window of work time with me because once the mosquitos get bad, I am inside...
spring has arrived!
In between rain showers we have spent the last three weekends digging and organizing all the plants we scored at the Raleigh Farmers Market and a local nursery. The deck box is full with the usual...
mother’s day
The title of this post was going to be "cheeseburgers from heaven" when I had thought about writing it a few weeks ago. But it's Mother's Day today and the fact that I've been without mine for...
Golden Gate Park gardens
On Sunday afternoon, after braving the BART ride back to the airport to pick up our rental car, we stopped off at Golden Gate Park to visit the Japanese Tea Garden and the SF Botanical Gardens. Eric...
early morning farmer’s market run
It's spring again and that means another year of trying to score an heirloom sungold tomato plant from Craig and Susan LeHoullier. We got started too late last Saturday and by the time we arrived at...
Our Itinerary
2024 Trips
San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Madrid, Spain (Mar)
Valencia, Spain (Mar+Apr)
Palma, Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Bari, Italy (Sept)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
2023 Trips
San Diego (Jan)
Orlando (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Apr)
Northern Italy (Apr)
NC Mountains (May)
Long Island (Jul)
Wisconsin (Aug)
Chicago (Aug)
Oak Island, NC (Sept)
Brooklyn, NY (Sept)
Bordeaux + Rugby World Cup (Sep)
Castilla y León (Sep)
Seychelles (Nov)
Willamette Valley (Dec)
2022 Trips
Florida (Feb)
NC Mountains (Apr)
Washington DC (Apr)
Valencia, Spain (May)
Hilton Head, SC (May)
Pacific NW (Jun)
Long Island (Jul)
Florida (Sept)
Chicago (Sept)
Poland (Sept)
NC Mountains (Nov)
Euro Xmas Markets (Dec)